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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1986
Other alternatives
The recent decision by G.D. Searle to remove the Copper-7 and the Tatum-T intrauterine contraceptive devices from the U.S. market means that before long, this method of birth control will become a thing of the past in this country.
According to Searle, the product is safe. Searle blames the cost of defending lawsuits, many of which they say are unwarranted, and the increasing cost of insurance due to the product liability litigation.
The demise of the IUD is good news to the 14,000 women who filed suit against A.H. Robins Company and to the 775 women who have filed suit against G.D. Searle.
The A.H. Robins Company and Johnson and Johnson's Ortho division previously withdrew their IUDs from the U.S. market following an outburst of lawsuits.
The lawsuits have charged that the devices caused pelvic inflammatory diseases, ectopic pregnancies, perforated uteruses and sterility.
But lawyers for the women who are suing Searle say the company has known since the late '70s that their product could be dangerous for young women who have not had babies.
The million American women who currently are using the two IUDs have been told by Searle and by the FDA that they need not remove their devices immediately, although they should be removed after three years of use.
But if this is a cover-up in any way mirroring the cover-up attempted by A.H. Robins when the Dalkon Shield came under fire for its safety, then Searle has a great deal to answer for.
These women deserve to know the true reasons behind the company's decision. If the company is removing the product for economic reasons and the product is as safe as they say, the women may have nothing to fear.
Women using the IUDs would do well to see their doctors and discuss their alternatives, bearing in mind the relative safety of other methods and the risks inherent in dispensing with birth control methods altogether.
Unwanted pregnancies certainly are not desirable, but neither is the use of unsafe contraceptive methods. There are other alternatives, and they should be explored.
Pre-empted drama
It seems these callers weren't upset about shots of the astronauts' families reacting or even about the overdose of instant analysis the networks offered.
They were peeved that their soap operas were being preempted to cover the accident.
The in-flight deaths of seven American astronauts did not provide enough of a continuing saga to replace some people's make-believe tragedies for even a single day.
Some network officials stood up for the callers. An ABC spokesman passed off the complainers as being devoted fans,
Network spokesmen say they always receive calls from soap viewers when programming is interrupted. When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated, ABC reported 6,000 such calls. The calls even came when President Reagan was shot and programs were pre-empted.
and another said, "It's not that these people are heartless. It's the repetition."
More than five hours of any news commentator can get old, but there were several other considerations to take into account on Jan. 28.
From the beginning, there were hundreds of unanswered questions. Everything happened so fast, nearly everyone was at a loss for possible causes. But the networks had to bank on the hope that leads would arise, statements would be made and news conferences would be held. For the most part, they were correct.
There was also the matter of respect. Somehow, the network bosses found the shuttle tragedy coverage more deserving of air time than the latest developments in daytime drama.
When John F. Kennedy was shot, the networks canceled all regular programming from Friday afternoon until after the funeral Monday. At that time, perhaps America's weekend sports enthusiasts were not as insensitive as today's devoted soap opera fans.
Drivers enjoy cheap gas
Fill'er un
An oil production war bet ween OPEC and non-OPEC nations has created a glutted market, and a resulting tremendous drop in oil prices.
Gasoline prices have dropped more than 20 cents a gallon in some areas. Most experts agree that prices will rebound but are unsure when.
Although the situation is serious to oil producers everywhere, oil consumers are
likely to have little sympathy, remembering that OPEC's price-setting after the 1973 Yom Kippur War started the upward spiral in gasoline prices, which eventually climbed well above $1 a gallon.
But for now, oil users are enjoying the drop in prices. The industry's problems give all of us a chance to fill'er up for semi-reasonable prices once again.
News staff
Michael Totty ... Editor
Lauretta McMillen ... Managing editor
Chris Barber ... Editorial editor
Cindy McCurry ... Campus editor
David Clinton ... Sports editor
Brice Waddill ... Photo editor
Susanne Shaw ... General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Brett McCabe ... Business manager
David Nixon ... Retail sales manager
Jim Williamson ... Campus manager
Lori Eckart ... Classified manager
Carolina Innes ... Production manager
Pellen Lee ... National manager
John Oberzan ... Sales and marketing adviser
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No end to trinkets for lovers of gore
An acquaintance has made me the gift of an Oriental weapon called a throwing star — a pretty little thing that looks like a Christmas tree ornament.
It's metal and is shaped like an eight-point star. Each of the points is a needle-sharp edge, and if you throw it at something, it will tear, or stick in the target. And if your target is a person, it would maim or even kill.
About 25 different kinds of throwing stars. Three-pointers to eight-pointers. Two inches to almost 5 inches. And stars that fold up so you can carry them safely in your pocket until you find somebody you want to puncture.
There's something called a nunchaku, which is a couple of heavy sticks joined by a short chain. It is used, I'm told, for whacking people on the head. A bat probably would do
This person gave me the throwing star because he's a concerned citizen, and he's alarmed at the fact that you can buy such things at a store in Chicago.
A sampling
The store has a catalog, which I've been thumping through. And it sells — over the counter or through the mails — a wide variety of the kind of weapons that are seen in the bloodier kung fu movies.
Mike Royko Chicago Tribune
just as well, but these are prettier and can be concealed in one's pocket.
If the poor guy is still thrashing about, you can dispatch him with your ninja shoge knife, or your steel blade kama, both of which are ax-like devices that look like stockyard tools.
For more serious aficionados of mayhem, there are samurai chains, which are long chains that have weights on the ends. You whip them through the air at your enemy, they wrap around your enemy's neck or head, and — being! — no more enemy.
There are a variety of throwing knives, as well as a knife that has a handle that can be used as brass knuckles. That's useful, should you have a fit of compassion and decide to bash in an adversary's teeth, rather than carve him up.
And it gets better.
There are blowguns, for shooting spike darts. And heavy leather gloves that have as many as 16 sharp
spikes sticking out of them. If you give somebody a punch in the chops with one of those, no more chops.
If you're the slapping type rather than a puncher, no problem. There's a half-glove you strap on your hand and wrist that has four spikes sticking out of the palm.
Or if you really want to kick a guy when he's down, you could slip a thing over your shoe that gives you snikes on the ball of your foot.
There are swords and spike wristbands, sticks for bashing or poking, and even key chains that can also be used for poking out eyes or splitting heads.
But the most original device — at least for somebody who doesn't like crowded elevators — is a thing that looks like a small, folded telescope. You press it against somebody's ribs, touch a button, and a powerful spring thrusts it to full length. It's a cinch to break two or three ribs.
Maybe you are asking, "Why aren't there laws against these things being sold?"
There are. In Chicago, you can't sell them to anybody under 18. Of course, you can sell them to anybody over 18. And they can give them to somebody under 18.
And that's why the police have
been finding more and more of these things in the pockets of street gang members. The throwing stars, the cops say, are a hot item among the little thugs. So is the rib-buster.
"Those nunchakus were big for a while," a policeman told me, referring to the sticks-and-chain weapon, "but not so much anymore. The problem with those was that if you don't know what you're doing, you can whack yourself on the head."
I'm not sure whether this trend is good or bad. On the one hand, it is alarming that the street gangs have all these throwing stars, knife-knucks, rib-busters and studded gloves.
On the other hand, maybe it means that those who use these trinkets can't get guns.
As to the question of why it is legal to sell them in Chicago and most other cities, that's easy. It's legal because the lawmakers haven't made it illegal.
Why haven't they? Maybe they just don't know. There is so much they don't know.
Or maybe they figure that in a society where any psychopath can buy his own arsenal, why worry about a few stars — as long as you don't get them in your eyes.
Mailbox
Not children's cross
I've been observing the truly absurd lately, both in the press and on TV
It seems that many psychologists and elementary school teachers are intent on turning the shuttle accident into a cross that children should be obliged to bear. They use phrases like "emotional trauma" and "lifelong scars."
I heard on one news show, a teacher said to his class, "How many here couldn't sleep last night because of the terrible shuttle accident?" And as he said this, he began raising his own hand. Virtually every student in the class followed suit.
This kind of behavioral patterning is a pathetic, misguided and melodramatic crock of knee-jerk nonsense!
I am also tired of hearing the constant singular reference to Challenger passenger Christa McAuliffe with no more than a secondary comment about the other humans aboard. (Can you name them?)
It is my belief that those professionals who think it will affect an inordinate number of children are functioning in an academic vacuum.
We all feel deep grief at some time or other. Our children will experience such difficult emotions soon enough. But I do not believe the event of Jan. 28 will, or should, traumatize the children of today. To the contrary, I would be concerned if it did.
Pav for athletic job
research assistant professor Center for Biomedical Research
In response to the editorial on Jan. 31, concerning two Kansās high school athletes who were suspended for receiving benefits from a school booster club, I offer the following comments:
The problem of "corrupting" athletes with hidden remuneration is less a matter of corrupting the athletes (or the holy institution of "amateur athletics") than that of corrupting the natural, free and open marketplace.
Why should age be a determining
factor for whether an athlete receives compensation for services rendered? Would anyone dare suggest that adolescent entertainers not receive decompense for their efforts?
Where service is rendered and mutual (uncoerced) agreement is reached concerning compensation for such services, only a circumvention of the laws of the marketplace can prevent institutions from paying fair and commensurate duty.
The "purer state" referred to in the editorial is one of an institutionalized exploitation that bars athletes, particularly collegiate, from trading their services in the free market.
If there be a pure state of athletic competition it should reflect the ideals of our society. Those ideals allow that the best among us of various abilities and talents be compensated in a manner that reflects our contributions and attributes — a value to be determined by the open and competitive marketplace.
Discover art classes
Fred Preilberg Kansas City, Kan., junior
As one ponders the question of whether to attend a small college (public or private) or a large institution such as the University of Kansas, a basic question that is often asked "Will I receive a well-rounded liberal arts education accompanied by close, personal instruction?"
More often than not, the large university is accused of creating programs that are lacking in breadth, with class sizes of such magnitude that personal instruction becomes a virtual impossibility.
As a graduating senior, I decided to deviate from the established senior tradition of fulfilling all remaining elective requirements needed for graduation with "pud" courses.
One of the courses in which I am enrolled is Fundamentals of Drawing and Painting (ART 120), and I am discovering things about the world and myself<sup>a</sup> that I never considered before. I now look at everything through eyes that are beginning to see the artistic potential and beauty
of innumerable things around me that would have gone unnoticed before this personal artistic renaissance.
Fundamentals of Drawing and Painting is open to non-art majors only and has opened not only my eyes, but also those of my classmates. The artistic talents of the students in the class range between both ends of the spectrum, and there is no pressure to produce great masterpieces.
But there is a prevailing attitude in the classroom of freedom of expression, and the instructor is very willing to discuss artistic theory and aid the students in exploring a new frontier in every class meeting.
Why, then, is there no graduation requirement at the University of Kansas to take one introductory art course?
Courses such as western civilization, English and speech all accomplish their purpose, but wouldn't a course that exposes the student to general artistic theory and artistic expression seem to be complementary to a well-rounded liberal arts education?
Mark Weis
Markettter series
Headline misleading
The headline in the Kansan on Jan. 30, about an officer shooting a reeling rocket, was terrible on the following bases:
The public usually relates the word "officer" to a policeman.
The "reeling rocket" was not "shot" by any stretch of the imagination. It was blown up in flight by a radio controlled charge.
As headlines are supposed to show the reader the key points, then they should be accurate.
Gordon F. Sargent Lenexa graduate student
With a little thought I think a more useful headline could have been composed, such as "Runaway rocket destroyed in flight," or something similar.
The "reeling" was not relevant to the story. What was relevant was that the rocket was not under control and by its trajectory could have landed on the Florida coast.
Give Senate a chance
After reading the article concerning the Student Senate retreat (Kansan, Jan. 27) I couldn't help but notice the bias the reporter had against the Senate.
It seems that the same people who attack the Senate for its lack of organization, disunity and parliamentary squabble are now attempting to undermine the Senate's chance to work together and put into practice the ideas that have floated amicably through the past several Student Senates.
I have followed the Senate for the last year. All I have witnessed is useless, unproductive partisan politics. I have watched the last three Senates flounder in their own internal problems.
Issues that sounded good and undoubtedly could have benefited the University and its diverse student body have not been put into practice because of exactly the problems David Epstein and Amy Brown were trying to address with the Senate retreat.
It makes me wonder if those who so relentlessly attack the Senate really care about the University or simply the furthering of their own special interests.
Epstein's attempt to unify the Senate and its diverse elements into a workable, productive unit should be applauded, not condemned. If the Senate can learn to cooperate and get the issues that are important to us all through the Senate floor and into action, the students could finally realize what their Senate can do for them.
The weekend retreat to the Doubletree hotel by the entire Senate can only help to mold the Senate into a productive unit.
This is what all students want. Why criticize Epstein for his bold and long overdue action? Let's pull together behind the present Senate and give it the opportunity to succeed.
Maybe this time the students can experience what the Senate can do for them. Give them a chance — it's about time.
John Blackshire Leawood junior